So, I left some Diet Cherry Pepsi in the garage. As tends to happen in winter, the garage got cold. Damn cold. Cold enough to freeze soda. And since ice is lower density than liquid water, that means the frozen pop took up more space, pushing against the walls of the can. Additionally, it compressed the gas in the can. The end result is high pressure, high enough to burst the can.

This does not surprise me. That the pressure was high enough to blow the end off the can, in the process not only blowing the end of the can through the cardboard box, but also projecting the can itself through the other side of the cardboard box, shooting it across the garage leaving a trail of chunky frozen soda in its wake (and sprayed all over), took me a bit by surprise.

When Lockheed was designing what would become the C-141 “Starlifter,” they started with their previous success, the C-130 “Hercules” and expanded it. Stretched the fuselage, swept the wings, added turbojets. Obviously it turned out not to be as simple as that, and the C-141 had almost nothing of the C-130 in it… but in these drawings of the GL-207-45 (submitted for System 476L) from 1960, you can still see a hint of Herc.

One of the seemingly odder propulsion systems is the cyclogyro (see Wikipedia article). While an interesting concept, it’s mechanically complex, fragile and a power-hog. Still, people continue to design aircraft around the concept to this day. The general features of a cyclogyro vehicle are the ability to fly forwards, backwards or straight up with equal ease, and to do so fairly slowly.
One concept that differed from that was produced at the Air Material Command at Wright Field in Dayton Ohio, and reported on in May of 1946. This was for a high speed VTOL fighter using the same engine and armament as the XP-77. Performance was calculated as follows:

Max speed at sea level: 340 mph

Max speed at 27,000 feet: 428 mph

Max rate of climb, sea level: 2900 ft/min

Max rate of climb, 27,000 feet: 2000 ft/min

Gross weight: 3900 pounds

Interestingly, the two pieces of artwork that illustrate the concept seem to have been created by Alex Tremulis, an industrial designer who worked at the AMC at Wright Field during WWII. After WWII he went on to design the 1948 Tucker sedan automobile.

Eleventh in the series of reconstructed drawings from Paul Suhler’s book “From RAINBOW to GUSTO.” This is the Cherub variant as drawn by Henry Combs. This is Figure 62(b). This particular drawing has a Source Grade of four:

“RAINBOW to GUSTO” is available from Amazon.com (for $39.95) and direct from the AIAA ($29.95 for AIAA members).

To download the high-rez version of the Cherub variant drawing, simply click THIS LINK. You will be prompted for a username and a password. For the Cherub variant drawing, use these:

Lassi says his roommate explained to police that he was having a diabetic seizure. Lassi “was not alert and could not move his body.”

When the EMTs asked the cops to help them move Lassi from where he was lying on the floor, Lassi says, one of his “arms flailed during his diabetes-induced seizure, striking one of the LaGrange and Brookfield defendants. At no time did Mr. Lassi intentionally strike or offensively touch any of the LaGrange or Brookfield defendants.” Lassi says LaGrange Park Officer Darren Pedota responded by Tasering him 11 times, for nearly a minute, as he lay helpless.

Today, all the leading killer infectious diseases on the planet – TB, malaria and HIV among them – are mutating at an alarming rate, hitchhiking their way in and out of countries. The reason: Overuse and misuse of the very drugs that were supposed to save us.

Two things:

1: If you are coughing up blood… stay the hell away from me.

2: If you believe that evolution is “just a theory,” stay the hell away from me

Both are categories of people who could spread a constantly evolving, deadly plague.

Notice that immediately after the attempted airliner bombing from two days back, Obama actually came out and *called* it terrorism. He, or his minions, also called for the new passenger restrictions designed to increase airliner passenger misery with no recognizable increase in safety. So, howsabout this: Obama is using this as a way to crush the airlines as a prelude for government takeover. Drive them into financial distress by both increasing fear and making flying such a misery that people simply don’t fly. Then nationalize them. After all… you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.

Another rare piece of early Dyna Soar color art. This one shows the Dyna Soar heading to space atop the centaur upper stage of an Atlas booster. And if you think you are seeing corrugations on the back of the spaceplane, you are correct. At this stage in the design process the Dyna Soar *did* […]

So the media is currently ulcerating over Trump suggesting that he’d like to see NFL owners fire players who decide to disrespect the US flag & anthem before games. Here’s the thing: 1: It’s the players right to disrespect the flag, the anthem, the US. 2: It’s any citizens right to say that he’d like […]

Yes, I’ve posted these before. But I feel it’s important for everyone to maintain a proper level of understanding of the encabulator, the turbo-encabulator and the retro-encabulator. And of course once you have an encabulator, you’ll need to diagnose it from time to time: There have of course been advances in the field […]

Argh. Facebook is not my favorite thing. But, apparently, it’s where all the cool kids hang out, so the Aerospace Projects Review Facebook page that I cobbled together years ago, I’ve started posting things in again. One of the weird things about Facebook is that you (apparently) can’t see a page unless you are signed […]

Oh, boy! Mayhem! A Group Of 62 Catholics Has Accused The Pope Of Spreading Heresy Not being Catholic, I have no dog in this fight. Still, it’s always entertaining when religious leaders tell other religious leaders they’re wrong. Wacky hijinks often ensue.

So, Star Trek Discovery plopped onto the airwaves tonight. My review: It was certainly pretty, but all those visuals were spoiled by a whole lot of “WTF am I looking at?” Especially with the “Klingons” who bore almost no relationship to any prior iteration of the Klingons, in biology, aesthetics or culture. Heck, they even […]

… in a drone: This is pretty much exactly the sort of footage that would have been impossible to get prior to the current generation of drones. So just imagine what people will be able to film once the batteries for drones are actually *good,* with the power and energy density of chemical fuels like […]

OK, let’s say your town is plagued by a transdimensional monster that takes the form of a killer psychotic clown. Who would be the best person to try to destroy this menace? That’s right, the goddamn Batman: And because why not: Bill Nye just walked into our elevator while I was snap chatting.. pic.twitter.com/LwCOITAEft […]

A deli worker was attacked, someone came across the counter and slashed at him with a knife. He fought back with a knife of his own, and the other guy got the worse of it. So, what happened? Did the city of New York throw the deli worker a ticker tape parade? Give him the […]